Comedians sue over drug search program at Atlanta airport

Explore Our Galleries

A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali.
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC

African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie

Kidnapped: The Middle Passage

Image of the first black members of Congress

Reconstruction: A Brief Glimpse of Freedom

The Lynching of Laura Nelson_May_1911 200x200

One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

I Am Somebody! The Struggle for Justice

NOW: Free At Last?

Memorial to the Victims of Lynching

The Freedom-Lovers’ Roll Call Wall

Frozen custard in Milwaukee's Bronzeville

Special Exhibits

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

October 11, 2022

By Kate Brumback, NBC News

Comedian Eric André at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Atlanta, on Oct. 11, 2022. (Kate Brumback / AP)

Comedians Eric André and Clayton English are challenging a police program at the Atlanta airport that they say violates the constitutional rights of airline passengers, particularly Black passengers, through racial profiling and coercive searches just as they are about to board their flights.

Lawyers for the two men sued Tuesday in federal court in Atlanta alleging Clayton County police racially profiled and illegally stopped them at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The two men, well-known comedians and actors, say officers singled them out during separate stops about six months apart because they are Black and grilled them about drugs as other passengers watched.

“People were gawking at me, and I looked suspicious when I had done nothing wrong,” André said in an interview, calling the experience “dehumanizing and demoralizing.”

While the stated purpose of the program is to fight drug trafficking, the lawsuit says, drugs are rarely found, criminal charges seldom result, and seized cash provides a financial windfall for the police department.

Read about the case.

Airports are a common site for racial profiling.

Our breaking news covers racial profiling and the racism that leads to it.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.